bigredmed

This must be why our state parks mentioned no metal detectors when applying for a geocache placement. We assured them at several points in the process that we didn't dig up buried items and that we don't bury caches, but they insisted on including this language which seemed goofy to us.

Google search with keywords metal, detecting, forum and geocaching gives some hits that might be interesting. Did that. Found this: http://www.treasurenet.com/f/index.php?PHP...8516b&board=3.0 They are talking about burying caches. They are referring to them as "caches". TPTB might want to review this forum.

Well put. Not all virts were bad, some were maintenance issues, but others were not. Some are in neat locations that are often enough off the beaten path to be fun to find and good topics of conversation with non-cachers. Too many were some random roadside historical marker that really had little meaning at the time it was placed, much less today, or were otherwise problematic. Combine the frequency in which a virt had to have some random piece of data from a historical marker (what is the 3rd word in the 3rd line of the 3rd paragraph?), the frequency of meaningless virts, the rapid increase in this frequency towards the end, the desire to actually go out and find some box in the woods, the better attractiveness of the real game to kids, and the very real worry that the mandarins that run our parks, with little meaningful supervision, would simply decree that virts would be the only caches allowed, and you get some sense of why virts were banned. The ban was a radical step, but a step that was necessary for the health of the hobby.

Somebody in western Iowa, Minnesota, or Missouri want to handle this?

It's a patch antenna, what'd you expect? It prefers a horizontal orientation, not vertical as I'm sure you know...also likely affected by being that close to your RF-blocking self & pack. Yeah, I know its a patch antenna, but geez, after how many years of failure, what does it take for Garmin to do some thing about it? (like a different antenna geometry?)

Depends on your audience. If the cachers in you community are young adventurous types, they probably don't mind trying something that is not overtly dangerous. If they are families with 3 year olds, they face concerns regarding safety differently. Also, you have to remember that an afternoon of fun is just that. Fun. An afternoon that is intended to be fun becomes something else when instead of going on a geocaching adventure, you get to explain the concept of "wino" to your 3 year old. A lot of people find that out the hard way and tend to be resistent to situations that may lead to re-exposure. If you don't care that a big hunk of your potential audience stays away, go for it as long as its reasonably safe.

If they are listening, perhaps they can do something about my #$%#$% legend. I swear, if I clip it to my pack or belt for more than 10 seconds, it loses the satellites. If this doesn't get better, I may have to go back to the Magellan series. (OK, for the slow class: this was a reference to any lurking Garmites. Please deal with the antenna issue. Yours are not very good.)

But if they have the same half life as our TB's have, they will only collect about 20 bucks from the 4 owners who still have active Gnomads after a year.

I don't think its as important as a real travel bug, but I would suggest that for good practice, you move it within 2-3 weeks tops. That way, you will keep in practice for when you get a real travel bug where movement, or atleast, notice to the owner is actually important.

Perception is not reality. Nonsense. That perception is not necessarily reality was the entire point of the "Chicken Little" story you were probably taught as a young child. Perception can be reality, perception may be reality, but it is not a "given" that perception is (was, shall be) reality. If someone thinks that they will get a fistful of abuse, flames, or screaming posts for posting a topic, that perception will make them less likely to do so, even if their post is a good one. That is the problem we are dealing with and in this case the perception of the risk of being abused becomes the reality of people not posting here.

I think this is a wonderful idea. Also, the kids finding the recipe would probably have more fun making the playdough than finding the playdough itself. Recipe cards in general are cool trade items. We have an International Geocache Exchange cache in Nebraska that came from Spain. One of the trade items was a recipe card for a tapas dish that is really easy to make (thus kid friendly) and interesting. A cool recipe for playdough or some tasty dish would be a neat sig item.

Occasionally Keystone Approver and COAdmin will get a little wierd in how they react to some post. This keeps me on the look out for them and I stay away from topics that in the past have pulled their strings. These two mods have had the most trouble as I have been able to observe. I have not had trouble with any others.

This just isn't true. I've seen newbies flamed time and again in here. Not that I'm not guilty of it myself, although I can't think of a specific case where it's been done by anyone, it happens a lot. I can see why a non-poster would be afraid, especially if they had thin skin. Well they won't do it in this thread. El Diablo Then ED, yours will be in rare company. There is a lot of flaming going on. More important on this board are the screaming posts. If anyone suggests that perhaps, just perhaps, some kind of discussion should be held that a rule be added or an existing rule be interpreted more strictly, there will be a flock of scream posts that all go along a line of: 1. "WE DON'T WANT ANY MORE RULES!" 2. "JUST PLAY THE GAME YOUR WAY!" and so on. There is precious little discussion that doesn't get some scream post trying to block out discussion. This turns me off, and I now find myself posting alot more to the HAM forum here where we get to have quiet and helpful discussions.

Before we see this kind of anti-cache get out of control and take over Nashville, let me be the first to suggest that there should be a rule banning this kind of cache.

Ammo cans from Cheaperthandirt.com Trade items: Wholesale lots section of Ebay. Trust me. You can find interesting swag here. One order and you may be set for half a season. With trade items that you pick up and move, and TNLN factored in, I have made one order of prceision screwdrivers last a year.

Ever google your id? We are all world renown.

Bigred, where did you find a 7ft stick? Had to cut a tree down as it was growing too close to my cedars and turned into a long narrow cherry tree (I have one still growing, and I probably had the only two that ever grew straight... ). The base of the trunk got used for firewood and for chips for the grill. The tip got used for my niece's little hiking stick, and the 7 foot long piece below the tip is what my walking stick is made from.

I work for a medical school. When my wife and I are out and meet up with someone from the medical school, she refers to them as "Borg". I think the "muggle" term is silly and juvenile and therefore don't use it. But its the same as calling other UNMC employees Borg. A way of communicating your thoughts in a narrowcasting mode while in a public place. I refer to geocachers as cachers and non-geocachers as "other people" or "non-cachers".

Couldn't have said it better. No one cares if you intentionally set up a lame cache. People might try to find it for a laugh. Lame caches are a problem when you don't know that you are heading for one and 2 miles of hiking later, you find that lame one. Then, you mind.

I have a bunch of mulberry trunks drying from last summer. Both with and without the bark. I was planning on making them into walking sticks this spring. Let me know how yours are drying. Made one last year that turned a combination of blonde and green with the spar varnish. Nice looking stick. I made a cherry walking stick that is sweet. About 7 feet long and about 2 inches in diameter. Dried for a year and now its very light for its volume. Sanded it and dremeled the knots and branches to get them to be smooth surfaces. A coat of spar varnish, then a second. Steel wool and tack cloth. Third coat down. Pretty shiny. Steel wool and tack cloth and 4 and 5 coats down. Glass like finish that holds up well. Made a little cherry one for my niece with the bark still on it. That was light sanding to get the loose bark off, then dremel the knots, etc. Put 5 coats of spar varnish on it. The dark bark came through really nice and the knots and branch points offer interesting contrast. Used cane tips for end caps to keep the wood from being damaged. Like the spar varnish, not expensive or difficult to find. Straight forward application technique.

Do a detailed search of the caches listed in your area. Do a favor for the cachers in your area and plant a cache that is of novel type for your town. If your area has very few micros, plant a micro, if not, don't. If you have twenty caches and fifteen are traditionals, plant a multi. From your research, discover how many multis are "go all over the city" multis and if this is zero or some number less than 2 percent of the total caches, then do this type. If not, then don't. Not all the cachers that hunt your cache will have the time or ability to make 3 subway stops to find your caches. If you find that these types are numerous, make your cache different. Puzzle caches are popular with some, but not all cachers. If you live in a tourist area, make your puzzle something even a tourist would be able to solve so that you keep the number of possible finders high. Have fun, and please keep it in a water-tight container.

Sure we can skip caches. Two things that we need to address though. 1. From my home zip code, the first two pages of caches listed are mostly ones I have found or placed or micros. Perhaps we could make instructions of use of PQ as a replacement for the GC listing more public, or just make it more straightforward to use? Then those who dislike micros (or any other cache type) could simply not pull them out of the database. 2. Micros filling up a place make it increasingly difficult to set up any other cache type given the 0.1 mile distance rule. In a given city, there are only so many good areas, if they all get filled up in a wave of micro dropping, the city is closed to all other forms of geocache. Perhaps a limit to the number of caches one can place or a limit on the number of geocaches of a certain type, or a limit on the number of caches in a series would be able to be set up and thus reducing pressure on a given locale.

TNLNSL or what ever variation is discussed is a dissappointing reaction to the garbage in caches for trade items. Personally, I like to trade, but I have seen the decline in quality of items and frankly, I will be happy to stop trading. The TNLNSL part, the "I am so busy, that I can't even write a log note" part is something that we really need to put our foot down about. This is discussed elsewhere, but cache logs (electronic ones) should have a basic data set to qualify as a find. TNLN or TNLS or TNLNSL or TNLNTFTC just don't make it. Following cachers can't tell if items are still there or not and the owner can't tell if the cache is in good shape or not.

The basic data set for cache logs would also be a way of being sure that a cache was alive. BDS: When you found it (date and time), General condition of container and contents (especially travel bugs), trade items in and out. New hunters could look back through the logs and get real info as to the cache's location and condition. If I found a listing for a cache that hadn't been found for 6 months, I would know that it was unlikely that it was still there, and if I had the time and inclination to go after it, I could. Or not.

Good that you obtained permission. A second issue comes up, though. If the parks dept gave you permission to screw things into a series of benches, why would they be able to tell the next guy no? If I came to them with the same kind of cache and didn't get permission, I would have a reasonable case for going further up the chain of command (they let you and not me for no apparent reason.) Eventually, I would get permission and would slap one in place. From here it gets tricky. If I get permission, why not more people, eventually the parks are over run and the whole parks system begins to think that perhaps they can live without us. They could also just change their mind on yours and give you the bum's rush to eliminate the cache, and oh, by the way, pay for all the park benches that you messed up... I really think that as clever as these kind of hides are, when you use parks property, you should really not be destructively attaching your pieces to the public property (screws leave screw marks or holes). This just gives ammo to those who would exclude us.